For months, Quebec’s students have been laying bare their grievances against Premier Jean Charest with nightly marches against the provincial government’s proposed tuition hikes and Special Law 78, the bill that was actually meant to end the protests.
But with negotiations stalled and nightly demonstrations dwindling in size, thousands of protesters last night shed their clothes and tried to crash a party on Montreal’s Crescent Street, the road most closely associated with this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, in a bid to resuscitate the flagging movement.
The protests and media attention have already put a dent in the global sporting event, which usually generates an estimated $100 million in revenue for the city but this year has seen lagging ticket sales.
Protesters screamed at police and chanted slogans like “You’re sexy, you’re cute, take off your riot suit.” One held a sign that said “$ + sexe + pollution = Grand Prix.”
Protesters told reporters they were naked for a number of reasons; to show the government they have been transparent in their demands to freeze tuition fees, to garner more media attention to their cause, and to discourage police from handling them roughly.
“Our nudity expresses the demand for transparency,” a male student, clad only in gray cotton underwear said. “The government is masked. It conceals its own motives, as we have seen in the negotiations.”
The student requested that his name not be printed for fear that his mother would find out he was taking part in the protests.
He doesn't mind parading semi-naked in the streets in a thong with a fleur-de-lis on it, but doesn't want his mother to see it? Bwahaahaa!
Picked up in midweek by the Classical Liberal in "Rule 5 Forever".
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